The Advocate
by Caltrop
Summary: A feud between worlds that has lasted millennia urges the pokémon world to finally enact mass destruction upon Earth. Meanwhile, four pokémon who've found themselves stranded on Earth must find their way off the planet before it is fully destroyed. M for death and possible lemons.
1. The Miner Ship Incident

**THE ADVOCATE  
**prologue pt.1: The Miner Ship Incident

* * *

Lights blinked on and off down the corridor, not like usual warning lights. Rather, they pulsated lethargically, allowing shadows to visibly creep around during intervals when the corridor was lit up. The red lights strobed noiselessly but did little to accent the already crimson bodies that lay about. There were windows, tiny ones. The ship was large and not very advanced. In fact, it was probably a miner ship meant to be used for menial resource gathering. At the very end of the dim corridor, shadows came forth in a casual stroll, minding not to trip over any bodies. The warning lights lit up, and in a flash, the detailed countenances of two figures were revealed.

There was a great size different between the two. One, the bipedal, shrimp-like crustacean, was nearly as wide as it was tall. Strutting abreast of the shrimp was a relatively small quadruped that resembled that of a hound but with pyramidal mounds of fur on its back and head. While the shrimp was complacent, the hound glowered at nothing in particular, bearing with the discomfort of having a prosthetic left hind leg.

"Where's this command room already?"

The two stopped walking. "Pardon? Is _that _what we're looking for?" said the innocent crustacean. Under his arm, an anomalocaris-esque creature about the size of a briefcase stirred momentarily at the sound of the duo's voices, then went back to its dormant state.

"What'dju think we were looking for? The bleedin' bathroom?" They continued their normal jiving until someone reached out to the hound's foot, gesturing for mercy. At first, the hound ignored him after an exasperated glance. Then, the shrimp's eyes widened and he brushed past the hound and peered down at the pulverized human.

"You! Tell us where the—"

"Please, what do you want from us?" the human managed to sputter out.

"You!" the shrimp repeated impatiently, more sternly this time. "Tell us where your command thing is, or we'll be forced to kill you." Red light gleamed off his free claw, dazzling the poor human.

The human, knowing he was already on the verge of death, let his eyes roll back into their sockets as he let an awkward grunt escape his lips. The shrimp growled at him, clawing at the air, prompting him to speak. "The alarm lights," the man began slowly, "always lead to c-central command..." He lifted a shaking finger and pointed down the hall. "Please, just spare me," were the man's final words before he gagged on liquid in his throat and slammed his head down against the metal floor.

"Great, let's go and kill this guy already." The blunt hound's name was Kilo and the shrimp's name was, well...everybody informally referred to him as Plates. The pair rarely addressed each other by name, however, because they were simply acquaintances, partners, and "names and other childish trivia are of no importance." As the duo followed the lights, it became clear that the wide indentations in the walls were other previously unnoticed corridors that were just unlit. Kilo pondered the amount of humans hiding within, and though he truly wanted to torch them, he had to stay focused on the mission.

The door burst off its hinges and fell with a thud onto the floor. The human across the room, sitting in a big chair while looking significant, was identified as the commander. "So, you think you can surreptitiously dock my ship, kill all my men and me, _and _survive yourselves?" the commander said, his wrinkly finger resting on the Y key of a keyboard. "Let me tell you, Sunshine..." he said quietly, his body quivering spitefully.

_You are about to initiate self destruct sequence.  
Please note that, once activated, this command is NOT overridable. Severe federal penalties will result if the destruction of equipment is caused unconditionally or by anyone other than the commander of the spacecraft.  
Initiate self destruct? Y/N_

The man kept an intent stare on the button the entire time. He was tense, and he could feel their presence behind him. After a pause, he determinedly spoke. "I won't let you make a fool out of—"

The commander's head bisected at the neck, releasing pieces of flesh and a shower of mist into the air. His finger limply slid off the Y key before sliding off the keyboard and falling to his side.

"Mission complete," Plates said indifferently, rubbing his irritated eyestalks.

Kilo turned on a device imbedded into his foreleg. The device served as a walkie-talkie. "Mission complete," Kilo echoed. No one answered, which confused the two, but they shrugged it off and decided to return to their shuttle.

"Did you notice anything unusual about this mission?"

"No. Do you think there's something unusual about this mission?"

"Well, you don't think it's weird how we were only supposed to kill a bunch of humans and not even retrieve anything from the ship?"

Kilo eyed his crustaceous partner as he walked. "I'd rather not question our superiors or the missions they give us. Our government has come to despise the human race..."

"So we exterminate them out of hatred? Spite?" Plates shook his head. He was delving into a touchy topic, and considering Kilo's hind leg had been claimed by a human, there was no use trying to argue with the canine. "Never mind," Plates gave in, waving his claw in the air dismissively.

"One day you'll understand, rookie." This remark made Plates narrow his eyes inquisitively. Kilo continued in a nonchalant manner. "They'll take whatever you hold dear to your heart. Right from your own claws." He stared at the little guy under Plates's arm, making sure Plates could see his eyes. This elicited a gasp from Plates, as was according to plan. Kilo breathed a chuckle out of his snout and proceeded onwards triumphantly.

Plates followed behind, combatting the canine with unheeded retorts, all the while clutching the creature in his claws. Kilo stopped short as he turned a corner. Plates was close behind, and he immediately stopped talking when he saw the desolate dock. Ot and Aub were there. Ot scraped his scythe-like appendages down the door, this forlorn expression of his reflecting off the glass window. Aub was leaning against the wall, tapping his foot impatiently. He let out a small groan, acknowledging Plates and Kilo's arrival.

"Where's the shuttle...?" Kilo asked, perplexed.

Aub motioned to the device on Kilo's forearm.

"C.A., where'd you shove off to?" Kilo yelled into the device as he pawed it recklessly.

"I...I'm going home now," replied C.A. through the device.

"I think you're forgetting something pretty important," Kilo said through gritted fangs. He was not amused.

"Ah, yes," C.A. replied. He sighed wistfully. There was a solemness in his voice that made Kilo nervous. "You lot. Sorry, I've been ordered to leave you. I doubt I'll see you again, commander. It's been a pleasure working with you and Plates, Ot and Aub and Maxence."

"What is he talking about?" Ot turned from the door and bored into the device with a desperate stare.

Kilo looked desperate too for a moment, which, by deviating from his usual stern disposition, really concerned the rest of the group. "Maxence is on board?" he spoke softly to himself before shaking his head and angrily talking back into the communication device. "What _are _you talking about?"

"The human ship is on a direct, auto-piloting coarse to I16," said C.A.

"What!?" Ot shrieked. Plates's jaw dropped slightly.

This pushed Kilo over the edge. "You come back now," he demanded, to which C.A. stubbornly refused. "I am the commander of the shuttle. I _order _you to return!"

"Yes, but...I am commander in line. My job is to fill the vacancy of the commander when necessary. You're not currently on the shuttle."

Kilo didn't usually leave the shuttle during missions. This one was an exception, however, since he wanted to kill the human passengers himself. This was especially convenient for C.A., as he never needed to coax Kilo out of the shuttle one way or another. Kilo roared, "That would be goddamn suicide if we went to I16 and you know that!"

"You're killing us, C.A.," Ot cried.

"I'm sorry, everybody," C.A. said ruefully. "It's—I just ... Government's orders, you know? It's my head or yours.

Kilo was truly desperate then. He had trouble thinking. "It's one person's head, or it's _five _people's—no, _six _people's heads! Do what's righteous and sacrifice yourself! Go down for your shuttle, C.A."

"_Pssh_, you idiot. Goodbye commander." Communication with the shuttle then died, leaving the four inmates silent and alone. Ot slid down the wall and slouched hopelessly. Plates turned away and cursed.

"They can't do this," Kilo said. "We did this work to reduce our jail sentence, and now they're killing us off. Like our lives mean _nothing _to them!"

"Why would our lives mean anything?" Aub countered. "We're convicts. It'd be better to just get rid of us, but in the meantime our work benefits them."

Plates paced the floor, concentrating. "If they want us down on I16, then we must be there to gather intelligence, right? How do we return the information we collect back to them? Maybe they expect us to return safely?"

"We're not giving them anything. Don't let them have that satisfaction," Kilo grumbled coarsely. "But you bring up a good point."

Ot got up and treaded lifelessly down the hall. The crew looked at one another in a desultory manner before following. While they walked, they brainstormed. It was useless though. They had no way to get back home. They were off to a terrible planet where their fate lied. During their little walk, they came across a cryogenic chamber. It was devoid of human life, but there were still inexplicable speckles of human blood here and there. Aub could operate the control panels of the ship, as he was the only bipedal with fingers on his paws. Plus, they all understood the language that floated around on the ship. His tailed lashed as he punched in buttons aimlessly until the pod-like beds opened up.

"Shouldn't we find Maxence first?" Ot asked.

"This ship is big. She won't make it." Kilo replied bluntly.

"We can't just let her starve to death!" Ot argued.

"Max can't use this machine." Aub took a moment to revel at his paws. They didn't have opposable thumbs, but they got the job done anyway.

"Maxence!" Kilo howled into the hallway. His voice reverberated through the skeleton of the ship. There was no answer. "Can you hear me!?" Still no answer. After a minute, Kilo shrugged and hopped into a pod. He kneaded the cushions in the pod, unsatisfied. Then, he paused and peered outside. "How are all of us going to get in the pods when one of us has to be outside to close them?"

Plates blinked. "Computer?" he called out unsurely.

"What can I help you with?" the ship's robotic voice boomed.

Plates drew back, astonished. "Uh, can you close all pod doors in two minutes?"

"You will have to be more specific than that," the ship responded. "Besides, I do not recognize your voice."

Plates looked at the rest.

"I'll do it."

Everyone looked to Aub. His red eyes showed no fear.

"You can't do that," Kilo said. "You'll starve by the time we arrive!"

"One of us has to do it," he said seriously. He closed his eyes, hovering over the control panel. The mission had already gotten a lot darker; one of the crew had sentenced himself to death—a good, reliable shuttle mechanic, at that.

Kilo screamed out again in anger. How could their own government just dispose of them like that? Aub flinched, his eyes darting to the source of the sound. Kilo glowered through him like he wasn't even there. He ignored the canine and nodded in valediction to everybody, looking each of them over respectively. If he didn't make it to the pod, that would mean farewell. After a deep breath, he punched a button on the keyboard, initiating cryogenic sleep mode, thus causing the pod doors to descend with haste. Aub threw himself at an empty pod, but he had miscalculated—or rather, he had underestimated the speed of the pod doors.

He didn't make it. Aub rushed to Kilo's pod, resting his paws against the glass. Kilo stared back with what seemed like a look of horror and sadness. Aub too wore a similar, crestfallen look. It wasn't like him to loose his cool, but he did, and that made Kilo all the more uncomfortable. "I'll figure something out," Aub called, his voice barely penetrating through the tinted pane. "I've got time!" His intention was to fiddle with the keyboard until he could set a delay on when the pod doors close. But the odds were against him, as he was too humble to wake the crew prematurely by accident. Moreover, a setting for delays may have not even existed.

Kilo thrashed, pushing himself up against the glass until he tired himself out. Aub had his head in his paws, leaning against Kilo's pod. He and Kilo got to exchange one last, weary look, before Kilo fell unconscious.

The trip was long. It lasted a few years. The crew boarded the ship near a planet, flourishing with coal that the humans were scavenging for due to a shortage back home.

The conditions on I16 were adverse. The crew's ancestors had visited before but all died one way or another. Plates's great ancestors actually lived on I16 the longest, when it was nothing but rock, water, and kelp. Additionally, that was one of the first major alien interactions with other life there. One of Aub's ancestors had visited too, but much like the others, did not last long. The ancestor was regarded as a deity by I16's natives, it being reluctantly put into a stressful representative position, symbolizing "mummification" or something like that, before it miraculously disappeared.

It all seemed so foreboding. Despite its welcoming colors of blue and green, I16 was a scary place, and the crew later found themselves awake, suspended in space, staring down on it.

It was Earth.

* * *

So yeah, if you're interested in submitting an OC I'll review it and get back to you. Thank you c:


	2. Micro Inorganic Organisms

**THE ADVOCATE  
**prologue pt.2: Micro Inorganism Organisms

* * *

Everything turned out fine, fortunately. Aside from Maxence's malnourished death, the long trip to I16 went fairly smoothly—not that turbulence would even exist in space, let alone have any effect on the deeply unconscious crew. The pods opened automatically, instantaneously waking the lot. Kilo awoke to the sunrise, its shards of stark light creeping out from behind the blue and green planet. He noted, with much relief, that Aub had managed to get inside a pod, with the help of Maxence, whose skeleton of a body was upright against the wall. "Not so humble now, are we?" he chuckled.

Aub rubbed the back of his head and snickered in response. Leaning out of the pod, he said, "You can't blame me."

Those who were awake had a good laugh despite the corpse against the wall in its macabre state, for Maxence was the newest addition to Kilo's crew and therefore had not been attached to anyone, not like Aub had anyway. Ot, being the softest of the inmates, had bouts of remorse, but he let out a repressed laugh along with Aub, regardless.

The spaceship landed without a problem. A lot of humans were gathering around. The door opened automatically. The crew held back in the depths of the ship, listening to the humans. There was a lot of, "Congratulations!" and "Good work, sirs," followed by "...Hello?" and "We...received a distress signal a long time ago, then you guys stopped responding. Is the ship alright?" This was eventually followed up with a very unsure "_Are _youalright?" Of course, all the human voices sounded the same to the crew, who grimaced in utter execration at the horrid cacophony. It wasn't so much the sound of their voices that the crew abhorred, but how unorganized and anarchistic the humans seemed. It was a constant, ear-splitting roar of "ARDO EYO YOU UNE OKED AYHE LP!" Once the crew had had enough, they emerged from the darkness to make their brisk escape.

The humans were awe-struck. Kilo guided the others, pushing through the momentarily stationary people. The crew wondered what they looked like to the humans, if they were seen as extraterrestrials or just foreigners of a different image. They didn't fully understand the humans' mentality as a whole, but they figured that that must've been the very reason they were there.

The interior of whatever establishment they went through resembled that of the spaceship, only brighter, thanks to the star that resided in the sky. Upon exiting the establishment, the crew reluctantly noted that their immediate surroundings were a landscape of dull grays, and the flora was an artificial green (much different from the darker shades of green back home) to which the crew attributed to a sunlight superfluity; they felt it the moment they landed, the heat in the atmosphere.

"What were they...?"

"I don't know, but they killed an entire ship of astronauts."

"Don't remind me. The memory just makes me shiver. Anything capable of doing..._that_...must be contained immediately."

"Sir, one of the witnesses is here with some sketches."

"Show me."

There were a few sheets of paper depicting the crew's countenances: "As you can see, sir, this one here, with the jagged face, was clearly insectan, with wings and giant knives for hands. The witness claims it was green. This one over here looks to be like some kind of crustacean with eye stalks. It's layered in what must be protective shells. And this one looks like—"

"Anubis."

"That's...right. It was blue and black. All three of them were bipeds, sir. Then this one looked like a dog. It was blue and yellow."

"Well thank you." The man nodded to the witness in appreciation before someone else barged into the room.

"Sir! They've found something in the ship. Another foreign creature who is apparently dead, sir."

"Let's make sure it's dead before we go prodding it with medical instruments. These 'aliens' are hostile, and it just so happens that they've escaped the premises and are now nowhere to be found."

The crew, however, had situated themselves in the woods outside the space center. They were aloof to the humans' concern at the time, and were more focused on the problem at hand. There must have been some kind of way to return to their home. The first idea that came to mind was, if this planet had one spaceship capable of travelling a huge distance through space, then it must have had more. Also, Ot was in pain, but Kilo suspected it was another panic attack he was undergoing.

"The humans seem lax. Maybe we can ask them for a ship," Plates suggested.

Kilo looked at the crustacean sternly. "Once they find out about our interior decorating skills, they'll surely be angry."

"Ohhh!" was Plates's response. The crew didn't know anything about the humans or what they had in terms of defence. Were they a threat? Because the people aboard the spaceship were sure easily killed.

"Hello hello hello." Kilo spoke into the device on his arm. There was nothing heard from the device after that. They must've been too far away from home. They were out of touch. Kilo cursed and laid down. There was nothing they could do. How were they supposed to collect information if they couldn't even report it back to base? Never mind that, how were they even supposed to collect information? The planet was huge and there were only four of them. "This is pointless."

"We're going to die here for no reason," Plates mused.

Ot grunted nervously and pleaded, "Don't say that! It's making the pain worse..."

"Maxence already died. What makes you think we'll have better luck, Ot?"

Ot turned to Plates with a rare look of hate, his wings abuzz. "Maxence died because your little friend there is too dimwitted to contribute."

The little companion stirred restlessly in Plates's grasp. Plates looked shocked and hurt. "Are you saying that my child should have been the one to close the pod doors?"

"It's not your child," Ot retorted, his abdomen bending slightly in pain. "It's just an empty, good-for-nothing shell!"

Aub and Kilo exchanged confused looks. "Ot, what's your goddamn problem?" Kilo demanded. "Let's be mature about this."

"That little bug can't fill the void that opened up when Maxence died. She was an asset to the team, and what's this bug good for?" Ironically, Ot, too, was a bug. He was a "scyther," but his days on Earth ended a little too suddenly when his exoskeleton let loose a loud pop, sending the scyther to his knees in pain. As a result, his irate yells turned to horrified screams._  
_

Kilo got up in a panic and stared while the other two idled around. He noticed something coming out of Ot's mouth: a tiny little mite that caught the sunlight. These were known to crew as "inorganic organisms." Kilo gasped and cried out, "He's got drones!"

Plates and Aub backed away, their mouths hanging open.

Ot fought against the painful sensation until he couldn't any longer. He collapsed on the ground and his abdomen cracked open and thousands of drones crawled out of his mouth like spiders. Such drones came in miniscule capsules that were meant to be ingested, as stomach acid served as a catalyst for the drones' developement. And so, this was the method for efficiently collecting information on the planet.

After a long, long moment of silence, Plates uttered, "Could ... Could we have drones too?"

"Thankfully, I don't think so; Ot had a special meal before we left our planet. It seemed suspicious that they give him, of all people, a special meal."

Plates sighed wistfully. "We should've known. You'd need an important role in the space frontier to be granted a special meal."

Kilo laughed sadly. "He was...of little importance to the team." There was a truthfulness in the canine's voice. "Though he could chop down enemies like they were made of butter. That is, when he wanted to. If we weren't fed special meals, then those bastards must still expect something from us."

The three of them stared off into space for what felt like forever.


	3. Dog

**THE ADVOCATE  
**prologue pt.3: Dog

* * *

"I don't get it though." Kilo frowned and waited for Plates to explain.

"What don't you get?" came Plates's response. "We were selected to locate I16, and now we're sitting ducks to an ineluctable incoming bomb sent by our own kind."

"So that's what you think?" asked Kilo, pawing at the device on his forearm. "You think the only reason we're here now is not to collect intelligence but to serve as targets—so we can get blown up by missiles along with the whole planet?" Kilo peered over beyond the exit of their grotto and towards a suburban town, the outskirts of the city.

"We've considered the humans a threat for a good fifty years or so. The federation won't hesitate to blow it up. All they needed were I16's coordinates."

Kilo began pacing around the grotto, nervously circling around Plates and Aub. "And on the off chance that the federation decides to give I16 the benefit of the doubt?"

Plates shrugged and began cradling his child in his arms. "If that were the case, I suppose they'd attempt to reestablish connection with us and ask us for a report." Upon hearing this, Kilo forcefully depressed the button on his device and shouted into it. "Actually," Plates continued, "if the federation ever gets in touch with us, we have to tell them something good about the humans: they're loaded with resources, for example."

"They're willing to set up trade with us," Aub suggested.

"They're only _slightly _less evil than we perceive them as," Kilo muttered. The group was submerged in silence. "I'm hungry."

"Right then," Aub said in agreement, looking around. "Where's Ot?"

Kilo scrunched his face up. "No, I want _real _food, dammit. I'm sick of eating dead bodies and rations." Aub stuck his tongue out at the canine, to which the canine rolled his eyes. "We might as well enjoy our time here on Earth while it lasts. Plates, Aub, think of it as a vacation. Remember though, don't interact with the natives." Kilo padded lightly towards the grotto's exit. Plates and Aub looked at each other before following the canine. The suburb had an odd layout: buildings in which humans presumably resided in were lined up perfectly, like the whole area was laid out on a grid. It bewildered the group how the humans were so organized...yet boring. Kilo was drawn into a kerfuffle with a bunch of barking dogs. He had to be dragged away by his crewmates before he did anything rash, like laser-vision the dogs to death.

It was nighttime. The humans were probably eating dinner in their houses. The markets were still open, however. It was just a matter of how the crew was going to bypass the store clerk. "Should we just kill him?"

"We want to be as inconspicuous as possible. The humans at the space center are going to be attributing every little anomaly in the area to us."

While they were whispering among themselves, Kilo caught the scent of something familiar. He turned sharply to look down the street. One of the dogs from before had followed them. Kilo growled while Plates and Aub made to restrain him. "Ready for round two, huh, kid?" Kilo barked.

"No, no," replied the canine. "I'm not looking for trouble," he said earnestly, creeping closer. "I just wanted to get a better look at you..."

"Take it all in," Kilo said triumphantly. "But be quick about it before I explode you sky-high."

"You're the weirdest looking dog I've ever seen..."

"Huh?"

The dog looked at Plates. "And you're the weirdest looking human I've ever seen!" Turning towards Aub, the dog was left speechless.

"That's not very nice," Plates said self-consciously.

"Hey kid, you wanna do us a favor?" Kilo asked. Without waiting for a response, he commanded that the dog get them some food.

"Oh boy, sure!" the dog yipped willingly. He trotted into the store and was greeted by the store clerk. The salutation wasn't so much a greeting as it was a harsh reprimand; the clerk chased the dog, who was now whining in fear, through the store, yelling "no dog, no dog!" over and over again.

Plates peered around the corner and into the air-conditioned store. It was cast under a bluish light, emitting from the flourescent lights above. The dog and the clerk were nowhere to be found. Kilo pounced past Plates. Plates took his time looking around. The store was rather small, but there were enough aisles fit for hiding if the clerk were to return. Up against the wall was a machine that chilled various packaged produce. The crustacean was drawn to a container full of colorful cubed fruit. Stationed abreast of the machine was another one, similar in style, but it held chilled meats. Aub gravitated towards this one. Outside, a lone helicopter patrolled up above.

"Where is he?" Plates suddenly asked.

Aub, sensing danger, replied restlessly, "Close, but the store clerk's closer."

Plates cursed and looked around. He shuffled out the door and looked behind him. Aub, having been more agile than the bulky crustacean, went deeper into the store to scout it out. Plates whispered to Aub, but Aub wasn't listening. He peeked through the shelves through stacks of foodstuffs.

"Another dog!" cried the clerk. Aub looked at Plates grimly.

"I'm not a dog, old man!"

Plates sighed. Kilo had already compromised the crew. The clerk gasped. Aub appeared behind the man and wrapped his arms around him, muffling the man's confused cries for help. "What the hell, you idiot," the biped scorned.

"I'm up to my face in food," Kilo yelled back, a little overwhelmed. "I couldn't see him coming."

"That's what you call 'real' food?" Aub nodded towards the chips and candy hanging out of the canine's mouth while struggling to keep the clerk still.

"Don't talk back to me," was Kilo's stern response.

"Woah!" Plates emerged from behind a shelf.

Aub turned to him. "I have to kill him." The clerk's eyes widened and he began struggling harder.

"No no no!" Plates pleaded compassionately.

"But he's seen too much, thanks to Dingus over here."

"I liked you better when you were quiet!" Kilo and Aub were glaring at each other.

"Alright, what's with all the commotion?" said a new voice, coming from the market's front door, causing everyone, save for the store clerk, to pale. The group rushed through the backdoor, entering the bleak area where boxed food surpluses were stowed.

"Where's the exit, old man?" Kilo demanded. The clerk simply shook his head sluggishly as if he were too dazed to know.

Aub, however, already knew, as he quickly left Kilo and Plates to maneuver through the boxes. When he made it to the back exit, he did not hesitate to leave them behind.

"Wait up," Plates called out.

By the time the group had made it out of the suburbs, the moon was high in the sky, and the clerk had passed out in Aub's grasp. "Look," said Kilo.

Up ahead was a stationary train. The group hopped in one of the empty railroad cars and they all let out a sigh of relief. The train soon began moving. The group stared out of the car at the moonlit landscape as it rushed by. It had been a long day.


	4. Lam

**THE ADVOCATE  
**prologue pt.4: Lam

* * *

The railroad tracks shifted loudly, the metallic popping reaching a crescendo as the train drew nearer. Then, with a _whoosh_, the train passed by and eventually disappeared, leaving the landscape noiseless once more. Though Kilo, Plates, and Aub had long since been gone, the city with the space station was still well alive and restless, searching high and low for the alien creatures. Ot's body had been recovered and later reunited with Maxence in the holding laboratory. Both the late crew mates were expected to undergo biopsies within the week, but after having seen too many alien horror films all the doctors knew too well that an alien announced dead was still seeping with acid blood nevertheless. And as for the inorganic organisms, the drones, none had been discovered by any search parties. Perhaps the drones were too small in size to be noticed. Either way, the drones did not pose any apparent threat to the humans. The space federation had professed the function of the drones was for gathering coordinates and collecting topographical information of any planet. Does this necessarily mean the drones won't explode, destroy, and wreak havoc upon the planet? Well, the space federation is a sadistic entity and would thus have no qualms about implementing a self-destruct mechanism into the drones. But for now, their only function is to collect data. But...what do they do when they're done collecting data? They will surely explode, right? Ah well, there is no use being paranoid about such silly things. But...what if—!

At that moment, half of the planet erupted, sending fragments of earth in all directions.

Plates awoke and sat up straight. His eyes darted around the dark interior of the train, checking to make sure everything was still intact. This was the third time he had shot up like that and it was starting to bother Kilo, who had been awake and keeping watch throughout the night. Although, Plates had only been half asleep during the majority of the night, having endless fever dreams where he'd argue with himself about the drones and whether they will self destruct. Another thought suddenly came to mind, and Plates felt obligated to take it up with Kilo. "Shouldn't we go get Ot's body and do something with it?"

Kilo frowned. "Your voice...is very hoarse. Do you need water?"

The train bucked up and down gently. Plates couldn't tell how long it had been moving for. By then they were probably in another state, and returning to Ot would be a futile and possibly suicidal mission. (After all, his body had already been reclaimed by the humans.) "Uh, I don't think so," Plates answered, but he was very dehydrated. He thanked Kilo for the concern and looked down at the floor. He had dropped all of his food in the midst of the chaos in the market and had not eaten in a long time.

Kilo quietly walked to Plates and offered him a water bottle, which he had managed to take from the market. "This will help you."

Plates nodded and drank from the bottle.

"As far as Ot goes," Kilo began, "I don't think it would be a good idea to return to him. I'm afraid he'll have to do without a proper burial, and we will commemorate him in another way once the time is right. For now, let's just focus on surviving." Kilo's eyes narrowed and his body stiffened. "Wait."

Plates stared at Kilo attentively. "What is is?" he asked nervously.

"What happened to the store clerk?"

The two of them stared at each other for a moment, before simultaneously jumping to their feet and scanning the train. It was too dark to really see anything. Kilo whispered out to Aub, to which Aub replied with a yawn. "What's the matter?" Aub asked.

"What'd you do with the store clerk?"

Aub sat up, immediately sensing the lack of the clerk's presence. He had vanished. Aub said this to Kilo in an ashamed manner.

"Why didn't you deal with him?" Kilo spat. "Are you kidding me? Were you planning on just letting him sleep here? I don't recall inviting him to just _spend the night with us_! It was your job to kill him—"

"We were supposed to _kill _him?" Aub asked in confusion. "But, but I thought we decided against that."

"_You _were supposed to kill him, not us!" Kilo yelled. "And yes, we decided you'd kill him because otherwise he'd alert the rest of the humans!"

Plates opened his mouth to protest Kilo's harsh reprimanding, but he stopped when he realized the train was beginning to slow down. He assumed Kilo noticed it too, since the canine had stopped barking at Aub and was staring suspiciously at the scenery outside the train. Once the train's usual jolting back and forth seemed to come to a stop, it was easy to confirm the train was in fact halting. Kilo rushed to the door of the box car and looked out. Closer towards the front of the train were a number of moving lights, possibly flashlights. The train finally stopped and remained stationary. Kilo could see at that point that the lights in the distance were moving, much light flashlights, and the front of the train was being searched. Meanwhile, the search party refused to answer the conductor's questions as to what exactly warranted a mandated search of his train. The conductor was politely told to wait in the train while every car would be thoroughly searched. "But, why?" the conductor asked again and again. Finally, someone responded: "A man woke up on a train after being kidnapped. He escaped and notified the police, so we're searching every train heading south for the kidnappers."

It was left out that the kidnappers were of course suspected to be somehow associated with the alien creatures that had slaughtered an entire ship's worth of miners. The store clerk, having sustained several injuries after leaping from the train, was in a semi-lucid state when he arrived at a police station in a small village in the hills. He spoke quickly and was only able to articulate certain words, everything else being a slur of frantic speech.

"There are humans coming," said Kilo. Plates and Aub were already aware though and were collecting their sparse range of belongings. The three exited the box car and ran into the trees. Plates gasped and made to turn around, tripping over his own leg in the process. Kilo stopped and looked back as Plates tumbled down. "What are you doing?" he whispered.

"I-I...Where is he?" Plates stuttered.

"Where is who?"

The crustacean looked at his empty claws, almost bewildered. It then clicked inside Kilo's head that Plates's child was missing. Kilo began to seethe as he hurdled back towards the train, past Plates. Plates followed Kilo, knowing too well that he was going to get in serious trouble for this. But even more importantly, Plates feared for the safety of his child. Upon reaching the box car, he stood and idled helplessly as Kilo looked around. Aub emerged from the tall grass and looked from Plates to the search party, which was approaching quickly. Plates shifted uneasily and whispered, "D-did you find him...?"

"No," Kilo called back from within the box car. "I can't seem to find him. We have to leave."

"We can't!" Plates pleaded, hoisting himself up onto the train.

"It's too late," Kilo said, eyeing the flashlights. He then looked to Aub, who was motioning for them to get the hell out of there. "We have to leave. Now."

"Wait..." Plates disappeared into the darkness of the train's interior. A search light passed by the door of the box car, followed by another one...and another one...until the search party was looking through the next car over. Kilo thought about running—just leaving Plates behind. He leaned forward, preparing to jump from the car, but Plates beat him to it. With his child in hand, the crustacean ran to cover, but there was no cover...The tall grass started twenty yards down the gravel slope, but sliding down the slope would attract attention. With the flashlights waving around erratically, Plates could only run parallel to the train along the rails. Kilo bounded from the box car, arousing the suspicion of a nearby human. Sensing this, Kilo sprinted up to Plates and headed to a nearby pickup truck, parked by the railway.

"What was that?" they heard someone say. Light was cast along the area Kilo and Plates had been running, but the two had dove off to the side and hid behind the pickup truck. Attached to the back of the truck was a platform on wheels with a convenient tarp on it. Normally a tractor would have been put underneath the tarpaulin and transported on the platform, but for this occasion it was used to conceal the two runaways. "Show yourself!" came a human voice. The human waved his flashlight at the side of the train as backup came to cover the area. Under the tarp Kilo and Plates were trying hard not to breathe too loudly. Plates hugged his child tightly, relieved. When he tilted his head upward slightly, he caught a glimpse of Kilo in the darkness, glaring back at him through the stalactitic shapes of the tarp. Plates did nothing but look away.

In the tall grass a little ways away Aub sat still, trying to figure out where the other two had gone. He was not aware that they had taken refuge in the back of the pickup truck. In fact, he couldn't even see the truck from where he was, so he sat there waiting patiently. He wondered if he should try to get closer, to see what was happening, but he decided against it. "If the need arises," he thought to himself, "then I will attack." His knees were starting to ache, so he decided to sit down.

He listened for when the humans found Kilo and Plates, though he prayed that wouldn't happen. Nothing happened for a while. "Perhaps the humans moved on, and Kilo and Plates made it to safety." Aub then began to think about Ot. As "captain's assistants," he and Ot were expendable, merely there to lend a hand. He thought about his own purpose, his meaning, his value. He could lose his life, and much like Ot his death would not impinge others' lives in the slightest. The world would go on, and maybe someone would consider commemorating his life in the distant future "once the time is right." But even if his own life was of little value, Kilo's life was of little value too, at least in the eyes of the space federation; despite being the captain, and despite Plates being the vice captain, Kilo was sent on a suicide mission too. In other words, Aub's life was at least equally as meaningless as his crew mates. In the end, _all of them _had been equally fucked by the space federation.

Aub sighed and looked at the sky. He gazed at the twinkling lights and tried to determine which light he had come from. He had red eyes. His fur was blue with black patterns, and he bore ornate spikes on his wrists and on his chest. His species was commonly referred to as "lucario."

Of the words the store clerk was able to say coherently, "Egyptian" and "dog" were some of them. The officer at the desk had stared at the clerk for a long time before typing something into his computer. The clerk grasped his chest and looked like he was about to collapse.

"Wait!" the officer said, turning the computer monitor to the clerk. "Did it look like this?" On the screen was a depiction of an ancient Egyptian god, something that most humans were actually familiar with. Seeing this, the clerk fainted, and at that point the very unnerved officer picked up the telephone and began making a call. All the while a question was present in the back of the officer's mind, and every other human's mind as well: were these "aliens" that they were dealing with? Or were they all _gods_? Were the gods sent to relay a message to the humans? Had they been unearthed by some unknown means after centuries of dormancy, just to forewarn the humans of something? Maybe, I16, Earth, was nearing its destruction, and the gods were there to make this prediction widespread. If that were the case, these foreign creatures were not there to harm, but to help (despite the decimation of the entire miner crew days earlier).

Either way, officers were dispatched with the intention of finding the gods and even killing them if necessary. However, out of all the trains the group of officers searched, none held any signs of the gods. Kilo and Plates had managed to evade the search party and hide in a parked pickup truck by the train tracks. There they had fallen asleep, and the sun was beginning to rise. The search parties had moved elsewhere, and the train had proceeded on its way. All was quiet, except for the sound of footsteps crunching along a gravel path toward the truck. A woman in her twenties unlocked the truck, got in, and turned it on. The engine began humming, and the entire truck including the attached platform shook to life.


	5. The Girl

**THE ADVOCATE  
**prologue pt.5: The Girl

* * *

The two were woken up instantaneously once the pickup truck started moving. Plates sat up a little bit, looking like a confused and tired child still half asleep. The truck hit a bump in the road and the entire platform thrusted itself into the air. "Ah!" Plates was suddenly very lively and present. "What do we do!?"

"Uh, uhh," was all Kilo could muster up before the truck hit another bump. They only rose a few inches into the air, but they crashed down hard. The constant up-and-down motion made them very disoriented, and the tarp obscuring their vision wasn't helping. "We got to—we have to get off!"

Plates nodded and began crawling backwards, but before he could make it out from under the tarp the bumping ceased, and the truck seemed to pick up speed.

Kilo commanded Plates to wait. The canine crawled a ways before he reached the daylight. There, with his head poking out of the tarp, he saw that the truck was driving on a highway! Kilo retreated back beneath the tarpaulin. "We can't jump off. We're going too fast," he told Plates.

"Then what are we supposed to do? Just stay put? What about Aub?"

"I'm right here."

Kilo and Plates both gasped.

In one of the uncharted sectors of the tarp was the lucario, who'd managed to hop on the platform as the truck was driving away and hide inside the tarp. "I noticed two lumps poking out in the back of the truck so I figured it was you guys," said Aub. "How'd you get yourselves in this mess?"

"Were these 'lumps' noticeable?" Kilo asked, concerned whether or not they could be seen by the driver.

"By me, yes."

Kilo thought for a moment. "And who is driving the truck?"

"It looked like a female human," Aub replied. "I don't sense that she is too dangerous, but still."

"Okay," Kilo began, ready to command his crew like the competent leader he was, "our first course of action will be to, uh...umm..." It was becoming noticeable just how much that all-knowing, paramount twinkle in his eyes had faded since they had been on the planet. The canine looked to the side, appearing to fixate on something beyond the tarp. He looked sad as he continued to trail off with uh's and um's. The truth was, he had been understandably hopeless since their mission had unexpectedly began, but he didn't want his crew to know that. As the directorial figurehead of the crew he was more concerned about providing the crew with hope, whether it was earnest hope or just a false sense of hope. In reality, his authority meant nothing and was simply an arbitrary title given under the Space Federation's orders, meant to be put into effect whenever his crew would go on missions.

"Are you having that much trouble planning this out?" asked Plates.

"No," Kilo snapped. "It's just that, uh, this car keeps thunking and thunking and I...I can't think straight."

Plates didn't really buy it. He gave Aub a concerned look and said, "Well, _I _would suggest that we wait until the car stops and escape when we have the chance."

"Ah, yes! Great idea! That's some good thinking!" Really it was the easiest (and only) answer, but Kilo still appeared to be impressed with Plates's answer. "And if the human sees us, we'll simply terminate her," he added compulsively.

For the next ten minutes the crew would sit in silence, their hearts beating and their minds full of uncertainty, until finally the car came to a stop. The engine stopped its humming and everything became very quiet and still. Everyone had lasted long enough to not have emptied his stomach out off the side of the platform, which was good. Outside the tarp, the pickup truck was parked in a garage with the platform still outside. The human got out of the vehicle and slowly walked back, looking outside at a suburb filled with crisp morning air. She intended to close the garage door, but for that to happen she would need to unlink the platform from the back of the pickup. That would be a problem.

The human stopped looking around the neighborhood and made to bend down, but something made her take a step back. There was something under the tarp on the platform. She didn't recall putting anything under there, and whatever was under there was too small to be her lawn mower. She figured it was just air pockets, but unlatched the tarp from the platform and lifted it up just to make sure. Beneath the tarp she found three distinct creatures that were so alien to her she had trouble registering what they were. It was like lifting up a rock and seeing centipedes and salamanders, but it was all so unexpected that the sight made her shiver violently.

Kilo, Plates, and Aub looked up and made eye contact with the human. Though they knew they could obliterate the human without lifting a finger, they felt rather vulnerable in that moment. So they didn't attack. They just kept still.

The woman's expression change from shock to, surprisingly, calmness. It was as though she knew who they were. She looked over them knowingly, a faint smile forming its way onto her face. When she spoke, her voice was soft so as to keep the creatures pacified. "H-hi. I didn't expect you to...come to _my _house." Then, with a kind of awkward chuckle, she added, "I would have cleaned it."

Finally reverting back to his primal instincts, Kilo snarled and gathered flames deep within his throat, ready to incinerate her.

"No no no wait!" The human assumed a very defensive position. Plates noted how, though the human was nervous before, she did not seem to be immediately afraid of them. "Please, I don't understand why you're going on this rampage!"

Kilo stopped and blew a harmless cloud of ashes from his snout. "If you were cornered, you'd chew your way out too," was his response.

"In what way have we threatened you?" said the human.

"Well, for one, we've been being sought after by several groups of humans since we've been here. How exactly is people chasing you _not _threatening?"

"Well," the human wavered, "I'm sure those people have their...reasons. But not everyone is trying to chase you. _I'm _not." She looked around the neighborhood in case there were any witnesses. Then, she urged the crew to get inside the house.

"What?" Kilo exclaimed in dismay. "You say 'not everyone is trying to chase us,' yet you want us to get in your house?"

The human seemed oddly rushed as she tried to usher them inside the garage. "I get your point, and you can kill me if I do anything threatening, but if you stay out here some early birds might see you." She gently touched Plates, trying to lead him into the garage. At this point, the crustacean was very docile, but the cold touch of the human's hands made him shutter and back away. The human put her hands up apologetically.

Plates sighed and turned to Kilo. "She has a point. It's probably safer in someone's house than out here, anyway...or under that tarp."

Kilo cautiously entered the garage. "I guess I can't argue with that. You two, follow me, and be careful!" Once everyone was in the garage, Kilo looked at the human. "The deal is that we will kill you if you do anything strange." He was suddenly hit with the realization that, hey, why shouldn't they just kill her right on the spot? "Wait. Why shouldn't we kill you right now?" He looked towards Plates for moral approval, but Plates just frowned.

"Uh," The human became nervous again. "Because that's not what you're here for."

"What? What are we here for then? Tell us."

"To tell us something. To forewarn us." The human swallowed hard and said sincerely, "I don't 100 percent believe everything the news says, but some people believe you are all gods who, I don't know, time traveled from the past to tell us something...right?"

There was silence among them. None of them had expected any amount of humans to perceive them in a good light. That was simply not conceivable, especially after the miner ship incident. "If we're from the past, then how are we supposed to forewarn you of something from the future, huh?"

The light drained from the human's eyes. Her arms fell limply at her sides. It was true, that wouldn't make any sense. Unless... "Well, why does the fact that you're from the past make any difference? Maybe you're omnipotent, all-knowing beings that see into the past and into the future."

"Suppose you're right," Kilo sneered. "What would we even forewarn you about?"

"How should I know?" the human replied. "Um, CO2 is going to acidify our oceans? The sun is going to explode? A meteor is going to collide into the planet?" She kept thinking, tapping the tip of her finger on her lip. "There's going to be an intergalactic war between us and some other planet?" she said half-jokingly.

Kilo's eyes widened slightly, as did Plates's and Aub's. They didn't say anything, they just thought to themselves about the impending launch of the rocket from the Space Federation, directed towards the newly found coordinates of I16.

"Did I say something wrong?" asked the human.

* * *

So yeah, if you're interested in submitting an OC I'll review it and get back to you. Thank you c:


	6. The Advocate

The female human sat alone in her office at her desk with her head in her hands. She ruminated in silence, thinking about the events that must've transpired in order to have led the gods to her own home. It couldn't have been mere coincidence that her and the gods' paths crossed, so they must have been led to her doorstep by way of fate. That meant that she was possibly some kind of "chosen one," so to speak, soon to shoulder the responsibility of, for example, arbitrating any opposing beliefs between the gods and other humans. Or, she was to somehow disseminate whatever message the gods bore. It would make sense for her to represent the human race _and_ represent the gods.

However, upon seeing several news articles on the internet, she came to the slightly relieving conclusion that these gods choosing _her_ doorstep over everyone else's was not so unfathomable after all. The gods were said to have allegedly "hijacked" a train (keep in mind most people, including writers of internet articles, see everything these foreign entities do as acts of ludicrous aggression). The train was said to have been heading south from Port City past Cury, her hometown, and coincidentally her pickup truck just happened to have been parked by the railroad until she was done spending the night at her boss's.

Flurries of thoughts filled her mind as she was still under the impression that these creatures were even _gods_. Who's to say they were? She wanted to believe they were, because otherwise it'd mean they were killing machines, much like most other humans believed. This is what scared her and caused her to be alone, sitting, ruminating in her office at such a time. Finally, she stood up and walked to the door. She opened it slowly and looked out into the living room. There was a large two-piece couch that took up half of the room. The room itself was very dim except for the spill of sunlight from a tinted window on the ceiling. Laying on the couch were three snoozing figures whom she gave blankets to for resting up, though it was only around eleven in the morning.

One god looked like a bipedal jackal with blue and black fur. Aub, belonging to the genus "lucario," as she was yet to find out, had the uncanny appearance of a familiar god of ancient Egyptian mythology. He was the one to have sparked the conception that he and his companions were gods.

Then there was the dog-like god. This god also had blue fur, but there were tufts of yellow fur above his forepaws and around his waist. However, only one of his forearms remained and the other had been replaced with a prosthetic appendage. A yellow triangle of hair was on his head like a crown surging with electricity. He was Kilo, the manectric.

And lastly, there was the crustacean god that appeared to have resurrected from rocks. He had feathers protruding from his flanks that presumably facilitated swimming in water, and eye-stalks like that of a shrimp. He was referred to as Plates for the fortified back plating his species, armaldo, is known for having. His child, who was hidden beneath the covers, was an anorith, a miniature version of the crustacean god himself.

The human herself was named Robin. The crew learned this during a very begrudging introduction before. Robin seemed to be truthful, at least for the moment. Nevertheless, Kilo did not trust her, and Robin acknowledged this. She sighed softly as she wondered what she could do to prevent the destruction of her house. The creatures seemed harmless in that moment in time, but perhaps that was because they were asleep. Who knew what kind of havoc they would wreak upon waking up, fully rested.

* * *

THE ADVOCATE  
ch.1

* * *

To recap: there was a crew of pokémon comprising of Captain Kilo, the manectric, and vice captain Plates, the armaldo. Aub the lucario was an engineer and Ot the scyther was in charge of mission logistics and defense. C.A., a porygon-z, piloted the crew's shuttle, and Maxence, a sylveon, swung between assistant engineer and defense. The crew had all been imprisoned for minor felonies against the space federation and were forced to do what they called "community service," though that really meant hijacking foreign ships and looting the contents. The space federation was the supreme dictator governing their home planet. It was an evil government that ruthlessly utilized prisoners for labor (namely being the dangerous tasks that none of the more lawful pokémon wanted to do). Inmates would then be forcibly assembled into crews and delegated to different quadrants of the atmosphere to engage in foreign interaction.

The crew's latest mission they had undertaken was to seize a derelict vessel that was said to belong to humans, a much execrated and dangerous longtime enemy of the space federation. After successfully securing the vessel, the mission suddenly went incredibly awry when C.A. mutinied Captain Kilo as per space federation orders, taking the shuttle and leaving the crew stranded on the vessel. The vessel, though virtually motionless, was on a slow automatic course back to I16 (the planet in which the humans originated from), necessitating the use of sleeping chambers to enter cryonic stasis for the long trip to I16.

Why were they required to go to such a supposedly deadly place? Having had longterm strife with the human race, the space federation had made plans years before to send expendable inmates to the planet to spy on the humans and transmit the planet's coordinates back to base. Oddly enough, the humans were, for the most part, ignorant to the pokémons' existence altogether, putting into question what exactly the human race did to ruin its own image in the eyes of the space federation. Regardless, once the coordinates were recorded it would be a piece of cake to destroy the planet and erase it entirely, and the crew was positive that that was their fate.

Maxence starved to death and decomposed on the way to I16 due to complications with the sleeping chambers. Upon arrival, the crew was immediately discovered by a large amount of humans and was from then on deemed a "group of aliens on the loose." After hiding out in the woods, Ot's body burst open and freed dozens of hazardous inorganic organisms that had been harbored inside his body. The organisms' purpose was to map out the planet and transmit information back to base. The remaining inmates were then forced to keep on the move, and they eventually wound up in the house of a young woman named Robin.

After a surprisingly relaxing and thankfully uneventful week of being sheltered in Robin's home, the crew decided she was trustworthy, though it took a lot of badgering from Plates until Kilo finally acquiesced and entrusted Robin with minor details of their mission: the crew was tricked into going to I16 (Robin very much turned her nose up at that name), and it was highly possible that their home government was ultimately going to erase the planet from existence.

"What did we ever do to you?" had been Robin's million dollar question. The story seemed somewhat fabricated, and unless NASA had some covert knowledge of these alien species, the crew's story didn't quite add up. She was adamant that her idea of them being gods was less dubious than some secretive interplanetary war.

"Well, anyway," said Kilo, "I think it has been a very nice vacation from all the chaos and whatnot, but seeing as the world hasn't exploded yet, we might as well do something."

"Yes!" Plates exclaimed. He had evidently been awaiting Kilo's command for a while.

"Yes, yes. I think we've all been dying to get out of this dreary establishment."

Robin frowned and crossed her arms.

Kilo ignored Robin's attitude and continued. "Since Robin here is so skeptical, we'll go along with her ridiculous notion that we are benefactors from the past (or whatever the hell she called us), and somehow trick those despicable humans into building us a ship to fly us home."

"Nooo!" Plates moaned in disappointment.

"Well what did you have in mind, Mr. Smartie?"

"Don't you think it's time we end this groundless war between us and the humans?" Plates asked. "We were talking before about how we could put in a good word for the humans. Tell our leaders of their harmless nature, or tell of their bountiful resources. If we could establish trade between planets, we could get home _without_ 'tricking' anyone in the process." Plates looked to Aub for support. Aub put his paws up, not wanting to get involved. "But Aub, you were—"

"Since when have _you_ been such a goody two-shoes pacifist?" Kilo barked.

"Yes," Aub butted in reluctantly, "I did say we could establish trade. I think it's a good idea."

Kilo rolled his eyes. The canine was not too thrilled being outnumbered like this. "Okay, fine. But, how're we supposed to 'put in a good word for the humans' when we can't even communicate with base? Communication's been cut off." He gestured to the transmitter on his wooden leg. "Okay, what about this? If we forewarn the humans of an imminent, uh, meteor or something that's about to crash into the planet, do you think they'll build some kind of defense?"

"It's not a bad idea," Robin said, "but that sounds like a project that would take a long amount of time. Although..." She was silent for a moment. "I do believe we have some kind of program that monitors NEAs and PHAs, as in asteroids and stuff. If a missile is going to target Earth like you say, then some program should be able to blow it out of the sky before it collides into us." It wouldn't have been unwise to contact NASA, or at least try to. Supposing no one actually knew about these creatures—and supposing these creatures really were from outer space—, NASA couldn't possibly reject the presence of real live aliens, right? Weren't they super interested in that kind of stuff?

Kilo considered it. "Will this 'NASA' do tests on us? I will bloody burn them alive if they even so much as suggest _tests_." He got only a shrug in response. He sighed and continued: "I guess it'd be a good place to start. Robin, I'm giving you the responsibility of mediation. Make us seem like non-hostile, friendly 'gods' or whatever."

Since it had been a week, humans had practically forgotten about the alien creatures. At least, the miner ship incident wasn't covered as much on the news and was instead kept on the down-low between various agencies, especially the people employed at the Port City space facility. Those people were very much still angry, as they continued to dispatch search parties every now and then.

However, several light years away, just beyond the ambit of transmittable communication, was a bustling space station orbiting a planet full of pokémon, mostly prisoners. Among them was C.A., the porygon-z, talking to an arcanine commander. "What are you lookin' for, C.A.?" asked the commander.

"Uh, yes, I was just checking in again to see how long my sentence has been reduced to, if you please."

The arcanine frowned slightly, becoming crestfallen despite his normally stern countenance. "Ohh, yeah." He seemed genuinely upset for a vile commander such as himself, but no one likes being the bearer of bad news. "There's a new policy—"

The porygon-z interrupted, already fearing the worst, "There's a new _policy_? Since when?"

"Since about a week ago...We're not disclosing new policies unless people ask specifically about them. Anyway, uh, working for the feds indefinitely no longer reduces life sentences..."

C.A. remained silent for a long time. There was no reaction, he just floated there, stoic as his species often is. Meanwhile, the commander idled by awkwardly. Finally, when C.A. spoke, there was surprisingly no change in his robotic voice. "Ah, I see. Well, commander, may I ask you a question?"

"Uh, yes you may."

"When is the planned mission to I16, and can I volunteer for crew?"

The commander was caught off guard by this question. He hesitated, then spoke. "Sure? I'm sure, if you wanted to pilot the craft, the current pilot drafted for the job would be very pleased to have you take his place. Are...Are you sure?"

"Yes," C.A. replied, though in his mind he was not planning on undertaking the mission as commanded by the space federation. He had a different plan in mind. He'd get the fuck away from that rotten federation and take refuge on I16, whether or not he'd die from it.


	7. Phone Call

The lucario and the manectric locked eyes after the door to the cryogenic chamber had closed, thenceforth sealing the lucario's fate. Kilo tore his eyes away from the lucario and forced them shut until he fell unconscious.

Aub then took a few steps back and looked around the now silent room. His friends were all asleep, and they'd presumably stay in that dormant state for a year or so. He, on the other hand, needed regular living essentials to sustain his vitals as long as he was awake. He glanced at the ship's control panel. It was simply there to control the sleeping pods' doors, yet the human technology managed to dumbfound each and every one of them, even Aub, who was the supposed mechanic of the team. But Aub shook his head, dismissing the tech without another thought.

He slumped against the wall and felt very cold and alone. The cool, collected lucario suddenly felt a profound fear of death, even though flying to Earth was a death sentence either way. Even still, he believed that in this world miracles were figuratively everywhere, waiting to happen. He had a feeling in his gut that, heck, maybe Earth wasn't as threatening as everyone thought it to be. Who really knew for sure?

But then, at that moment, Aub knew he was out of luck. No miracles existed on that lifeless mining ship. He sighed aloud and stared at the other side of the room for a while.

"...Hello?"

Aub gasped, averting his vacant stare towards the doorway. Standing there was none other than Maxence. He'd forgotten all about Maxence!

Maxence belonged to the genus sylveon, felis sylvenus. Although sylveon were a psychic species, she was anomalously a bit slow for her kind. Mainly, she was incapable of seamless synchronization with her team, making her quite a burden when it came to coordination. She "wasn't with it," as some of her crew mates, Aub included, would sometimes say. This characteristic of hers made her arguably the weakest asset to the crew.

The sylveon looked around the room. She had bloodstains around her mouth, indicating that she had been fighting. "Aub, where are the rest? Did we win?" she asked innocently.

Aub stared.

"Can't we leave now?" Maxence said ignorantly.

Aub was still thinking pensively about miracles and whatnot. It dawned on him that he may still have a chance at survival. He looked at Maxence regretfully. Even though she provided a means of survival, she was certainly no miracle. Miracles are different—they make things easy. Aub would have to finagle his way to success at the sylveon's expense, which would be in no way easy for him. His stare was still emotionless, though there was a great deal of pain culminating inside of him.

Maxence looked as confused as ever. She felt a twinge of dreadful uncertainty every time she met Aub's vacant stare. "A-Aub...?"

"Maxence...Could you do something for me?"

* * *

THE ADVOCATE  
ch.2: Phone Call

* * *

The crew spent the night discussing their plans in Robin's living room. Robin kept interrupting with questions about the gods, not being able to control her curiosity. Most of her questions were brushed off, though. With all the time-consuming digressions done on Robin's part, they didn't seem to be making much process.

"Robin, stop derailing the conversation," said Kilo.

Robin couldn't help it. It'd been hours since she discovered these alien lifeforms, yet their illusion hasn't seemed to waver away or dissipate out of existence. It was beginning to seem like Kilo, Plates, and Aub were truly real aliens! Robin couldn't deny it any longer, despite how unrealistic the situation felt. Because her home was easily still intact, she thought it quite nice to have the company of such...eccentric guests. "I'm sorry," she replied. "So, have we decided on a plan or what?"

Kilo furrowed his brows in disbelief. "Have you _not _been paying attention? Since NASA cannot possibly help us, we're going to have to hijack a human spacecraft. Now, we just have to find out—"

"Oh," Robin said, sulking. "You're gonna leave Earth then?"

"Yeah, yeah," Kilo said, projecting an obviously faked sadness in his voice. "It's been real swell and all, but you don't want us to be here and neither do we."

Out of nowhere, noisy static burst through Kilo's transmitter, drawing everyone's attention. Sporadically, what sounded like a voice would come through, just to be drowned out by static a second later. Kilo's eyes were wide, not with shock, but with hope. He looked at Plates and Aub, who too shared the same expression. They raced up the stairs at once.

"Hey, why are you going up there?" called Robin from the base of the stairs. She murmured nervously to herself, things about home insurance, as she crept up the stairs.

"How do we get on your roof?" came a voice from above. Then there was a slam. "Never mind, we got it."

Robin was then extra nervous. "Well, I knew my house would be destroyed at some point." She walked up the stairs and made a right down the hall. She heard some thumping above her. Peering into her bedroom, she saw that her window was open, but surprisingly nothing was broken. The gods weren't as violent as everyone made them out to be. If anything, they were goofy and klutzy, but not killing machines bent on destroying everything in their way.

"Hello? Hello! Can anyone hear me?" Kilo boomed into the transmitter. The static had cleared up a bit since they'd gone outside, but no voices could be heard coming from the other end. Kilo continued trying to get someone's attention, but after a while the remnants of white noise disappeared and all was silent. The crew's heads fell in sorrow. Sighed Kilo, "Must've been some random radio waves intercepting the transmission."

"Hello? Who am I speaking to?"

The crew gasped and looked at the transmitter. The voice that had emitted from it was impeccably crystal clear. "Hey! This is Captain Kilo reporting from I16! Do you read me?"

After a moment of no one answering, there finally came the voice again. "Kilo..." The crew looked at each other, astonished, with mouths agape. Robin watched them, standing by the window where she had exited from. "Kilo. Alive...and on I16. That's a shock." The voice was robotic, not actually expressing any apparent shock at all.

"You must be C—" the manectric began, but he suddenly trailed off, remembering how he had been mutinied so long ago by his own copilot.

"CT," Plates stepped in, his eyes narrowing. "How are you, good sir?"

"I am doing well, Plates. It has been quite a while since I've talked to this quintet," CT observed. "Since I am able to receive your transmission, that must mean our distance apart is narrowing down.

Plates blinked and shot a glance at Kilo, confused. "You mean you're coming to I16? Uh, why?"

"And also," Kilo butted in, trying to withhold his feelings of rage and betrayal, "it's a _trio_. We're a trio now. Maxence and...Ot did not m-make it." A low growl came from his throat that he was trying to suppress.

"Oh, that's too bad," CT replied emotionlessly—a little _too_ emotionlessly, so much so it nearly instigated Kilo into exploding into a hateful rant against the porygon-z. It can wait, Kilo thought. "But anyway, we're coming to I16 to destroy it up close. Since mere missiles won't be likely to do the trick, we've decided to infect the atmosphere with poisonous gas and annihilate all organisms rather than destroy the planet itself."

"Th-then can you pick us up before you infect us!?" Kilo exclaimed hopefully.

There was a pause. True, CT had made plans to take refuge on Earth, but that was after all life on the planet was killed. Since his species didn't exactly need to breathe, he could easily take up residence in the toxic environment that would become of the earth. There, he'd live happily by himself, free from the oppressive hand of the space federation. But, he couldn't really tell his other crew mates about his plan without him being detained.

"No."

Kilo snarled. "Who the hell said that?"

"Me, Captain Sam." It was a stern-sounding female captain. "If we rescued you, that would be dangerous for us. Captain Kilo, your sole duty was to pinpoint the location of I16, and you've fulfilled your duty. There is nothing else for you to do."

"Except maybe live a happy life, you heartless traitor!" Kilo retorted angrily.

Plates too was angry. "Captain Sam, when do you think you will be arriving?"

CT responded for Sam. "One week, just about."

This made Plates groan anxiously. Kilo said, "Are you going by space time or by I16 time?"

"Space time. That translates to approximately four days on I16." The trio's jaws dropped at this. Four days. That's how long they had to get off of the planet. The crew would probably have to make a change of plans to suit the newfound situation they were in. Perhaps they could find a way to surreptitiously board CT's ship before the deadly gas could affect them. Though it sounds crazy, that would be more doable than stealing a human vessel. But there were still too many variables to put into play that ultimately Kilo, Plates, and Aub were probably going to be doomed either way. But for the time being, they could simply do nothing besides try to convince CT and Sam to rescue them.

"This is simply not a rescue mission," Sam stated in the background. "If we tried to rescue you, soon enough _we'd _need rescuing as well. I'm sorry but I'm not going to jeopardize the only chance we'll get at finally terminating I16."

Kilo was at a loss for words. "But..." he whispered.

"CT, Sam..." Everyone turned around in surprise to see Robin, who'd been quietly standing behind them throughout the entire conversation. "My name is Robin and I am a human who's lived on Earth, or what you know to be some meaningless string of numbers, for a whole 26-and-a-half years, in harmony with the rest of the human population. But please believe me when I tell you, Earth is more than just meaningless numbers. We're sentient beings just like you." Robin briefly put her hand to her chest and looked at the sky, trembling slightly. "We feel emotions, and we feel pain just like you. And, I'm sure whatever pain we've caused your kind, if any at all, would not justify such needlessly brutal retaliation you're proposing.

"I've only spent about a day with Kilo and his friends, but I can definitively say that they are really sweet and kind, and I would do nothing to harm them as long as they're being, uh...sheltered in my home." She cleared her throat, hoping CT and Sam were still listening. "And I speak on behalf of the entire human race, so, uh, just know that. And..." she faltered. "It's okay if you want to kill all of humanity, but just know this: there is absolutely nothing here that will harm you if you were to rescue Kilo, so please consider it."

When nobody talked for a solid moment, Robin went red with self-consciousness and self-loathing, but she continued to be quiet. She put a lot of effort into her seemingly inspirational speech, just so she could garner nothing but blank stares from the gods? How embarrassing!

Eventually, Sam spoke again: "You've befriended a human. Interesting."

And with such a lovely voice, CT thought.

"However, rules are rules," came Sam's inevitable answer, making Robin twinge. "As the mantra goes, kill all humans, kill all humans, kill all humans!"

"But—" began the porygon-z.

"Good day," Sam said forcefully, before ending the transmission, leaving everyone in stunned silence. There had been a sliver of hope, but whoever this Sam pokémon was, she sure put a damper on said hope.

"On the bright side," said Plates, "CT's pretty good at mutinying his crew mates. Maybe he can pull through again..."

No one said anything. Kilo eventually walked back towards the window, passing Robin on his way. He was silent, though, and he wore his usual frown. Plates sighed and slowly slunk on after Kilo, leaving Robin and Aub standing alone, staring at the night sky. Soon, Aub turned around and, making sure Kilo had left and he was out of earshot of the transmitter, said, "The humans will try and kill us. We've already killed an entire ship's worth of humans so they know we don't come in peace."

Robin looked upset. "You could say it was in self defense. After all, you haven't killed anyone else since you've been here, right?" She had a point.

Aub stared ahead and thought about it. "Maybe you're right." He proceeded to the window before stopping again. "Thanks."

Robin smiled, with sadness in her eyes. What a weird world we live in, she thought. She had brought up a valid point. Even though the gods had been on Earth for however long, they had refrained from acting aggressively towards the humans. Robin was a prime example of firsthand contact with the gods, and yet she still stands with not even a scratch on her. Everything could work out fine if they were lucky. Soon, the two races would live happily with one another, and all previously fabricated presumptions would vanish. This peaceful world could be all theirs, as long as the gods played it cool and didn't kill anyone else.

However, one of the gods had a different plan in mind, unbeknownst to the others: exterminate _absolutely everyone_.

Months prior, while Aub sat in the sleeping pod, Maxence had asked him, "What is this going to do?"

Aub refused to make eye contact with the naive sylveon.

"Please Aub, can't you just tell me the plan for once? I'm not stupid. If you just told me the plan..." She pled and pled.

"Everything will be fine," Aub choked out. "I'll tell you everything after."

"Why not tell me _now_? What's happening? Why are you acting so serious? I'm so confused..."

There was a long pause. Aub gritted his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut. He commanded the sylveon to do it. Those were his final words to her. Maxence sighed and bounced onto the control panel. She looked at Aub one last time and smiled. He glanced at her momentarily out of the corner of his eye, but his gaze soon shot back. Maxence's smile faded. She looked over the controls and hesitantly put a paw onto the screen. A sharp hissing noise pierced her long ears as she turned around, offended. Her heart sunk when she saw the pod door closing. Instantaneously, the revelation that she was going to die struck her like a brick.

"W-what the hell!?" she cried. "Wait a minute..." From her vantage point atop the control panel she finally noticed everyone else in similar pods: Kilo, Ot, Plates, even Plates's child. She was the only one left out, and it was apparent that they were not going home any time soon. That's...fine, she thought, in denial. She could just live off of the humans' resources as long as she was there. But...would it be enough?

No, it wouldn't. A fire was burning inside of her. She leapt away from the controls and approached Kilo's chamber. "Hello? CT? Can you read me?"

A muffled voice came from within the cryonic chamber. "Yes, Maxence. I'm sorry, but I'm not coming back, and that's final."

Maxence twitched and laughed coldly. "Ah, you see, I wasn't informed of this change of plans." After CT caught her up to speed, all of her fears had been confirmed. They were being sent on a suicide mission. Except Maxence wouldn't live until the suicide mission even began, and she thought that was rather unfair. She paced beside everyone's chamber, until she stopped to look at Plates and his child. Then, slowly, her frown curled upward into a crooked smile.

* * *

a/n: New chapters, yay. A whole new team of pokémon is to be introduced in the next chapter.

But anyway, I'd like to know all of your thoughts on the story so far, so please review, thanks!


	8. Compromise

There were four days left until I16 would be finally dealt with. Even so, CT couldn't help but feel a little regretful. After all, he left his friends to die as per orders of his superiors. Because his life would have been put on the line had he not abided by his superiors, he had no choice but to abandon his friends back then. He was instead now putting his life on the line in order to escape the space federation. The irony made his head swirl with remorse, but a lifetime of community service didn't really suit his fancy.

The porygon-z had a problem, though. How was he supposed to exactly leave his crew? They wouldn't allow him to do such a thing. After all, the only one allowed to touch the escape beam controls was the copilot, a magnezone who took his job too seriously. Therefore, the only way he would be sent down onto Earth was if the crew actually went through with the rescue mission, leaving CT a huge opening to make his escape. Unfortunately, it seemed as though Sam was pretty adamant in keeping away from the humans' turf.

He swiveled his chair and looked around, spotting Sam standing by the small lounge area, brewing coffee. She drew her mug to her lips and sipped delicately, closing her eyes in such a way that made her out to be kind of snobby. She opened her eyes. CT flushed—if that's even possible for a robot—as he saw Sam's crystal blue eyes pierce through him. "Being a voyeur, are we?" she asked, brushing through her red and black hair.

"Um, no ma'am." CT turned around and got on with his business. "Sam," he said while looking forward, "I think we should rescue them." He instantly felt a presence behind him and shuddered.

"Listen." Sam sat down behind him. "I'm a pretty reasonable pokémon," she said soothingly, even though there was an authoritative fury behind her soft-spoken words that CT easily picked up on. "But putting my team's lives in danger would be a huge blow toward my respectful stature. Does being torn apart down there sound reasonable to you?"

CT was intimidated, be he persisted. "What makes you think the humans will kill us though?"

"Because _we're_ trying to kill _them_." She returned to using her normal, stern voice. "Even if humans weren't as violent as they are, taking any chances would go against the ethical stance I have to take as captain."

"Why are we trying to kill them?"

Sam stood up, frowning down on the porygon-z. She began walking back and forth. "Our ancestors used to live on I16. Then, humans came along and it became harder and harder to coexist with one another. So our ancestors left the planet. Simply put, we're enacting swift vengeance upon the humans for what they did millennia ago. Didn't you pay attention in history class?" She smirked, eyeing the robot wickedly. "I guess you're probably more of the math type."

CT made a _hmph _sound and countered, "You're basing current human behavior off of human behavior from millennia ago? Regardless of whether the humans are dangerous or not, can't you see that, by ignoring your fellow pokémon stranded on I16, you're basically going against said 'ethical stance'?" He looked to the rest of the crew. "Guys, come on," he urged.

One of the crew members, an azumarill, frantically waved her paws out in front of her. "No way! I am absolutely _not _going down there!"

CT sighed defeatedly.

"I say we should do it, bzzz," buzzed the magnezone.

Azumarill glared at him. "Of course you'd say that, considering you wouldn't have to leave the ship at all!"

"You are correct!" The magnezone beamed.

"I say we do it, but really though. I'm serious." Everyone turned to look at the defense and logistics commander, a noivern. "We'd be senselessly killing our own kind if we didn't."

CT perked up. Noticing this, Sam, the zoroark commander of the humble fleet, bared her teeth. "While that is true, we already left them to die once and no one objected."

"That was the federation's order, though," CT stated. "Us prisoners had nothing to do with that. Now, we actually have the option to save our brethren."

Everyone looked around at each other, wondering who was on whose side. Azumarill sweated anxiously from where she sat.

"I'll consider it." Sam took a sip of her coffee, reverting to her absentminded self once again. She strolled back to the lounge area for a refill, while the noivern and magnezone exchanged looks.

* * *

THE ADVOCATE  
ch.3: Compromise

* * *

The crew had discussed plans the morning after, and decided on the most practical solution: Robin would notify someone (ideally the president, but that was the most grandiose idealization they could have started with) via a public payphone, whereafter she'd reveal the infamous aliens' locations for something in return.

"What? The _president_?"

"Well," Robin spoke into the payphone hesitantly. "I mean, it'd be nice."

"Er, if you just told me instead, perhaps I could relay the message unto him," the man lied.

"Sure, but you have to promise you won't hurt them."

The man laughed, expressing his doubts on that. "You know they _killed _a whole lot of people? Appropriate measures have to be taken in the event that one of them becomes aggressive. And if we decide to interrogate them? We'd need a lot of people and a lot of guns."

Robin became a little apprehensive, wondering if she should just hang up the phone and leave. The gods weren't totally aggressive, although the manectric was a bit of a wild card. Robin took a step backward and looked up and down the street. Once she deemed it remote enough to continue, she slid another quarter into the machine. "Listen, you can't arrest them. Something is coming, and it's far worse than they are. More 'aliens' are coming and they're going to..." her voice grew quieter. "End us."

An _mmmh _was heard from the other end.

"These aliens may just be our only salvation. They come in peace, but you have to know that if you hurt them or arrest them, they won't help."

The responder was quiet for a time. When he spoke, his joking and skeptical manner had disappeared. "Normally that'd sound absurd. However, I _was _one of the people to have firsthand contact with the aliens the day of the miner ship incident. To be honest, I thought I was dreaming for the longest time, but that damn alien carcass is still there in the lab, and I see it every day through the window, walking to and from my office." His voice was cracking, as if he'd been traumatized by all of the occurrences having transpired during the week. He then forced a chuckle. "I wouldn't be surprised, Ma'am. I wouldn't be surprised. If you turn out to be some miscreant prankster, just know that I had justified reason to believe you, and I'm not some dummy."

"So I have your word?" Robin asked, energized.

"We won't harm or restrain them, _unless_... Unless they get physical. They also have to actually help us prevent whatever 'invasion' you seem to think is imminent, or else there'd be no redeeming factors keeping them from being imprisoned."

Robin knew that what he meant by _imprisonment _was not the same as the classic put-'em-into-a-penitentiary. Rather, they'd be put into a depressing confine and be tested on day and night, eventually dying from either stress or being prodded too much. "Okay, I'm going to call you back later after I talk to them. Thank you for your time, Sir."

"Okay, I will do the same." He hung up. And that was that. Supposedly, if the debriefing went well, the gods would team up with the department of defense, and blast the invasion out of the sky before it could poison the atmosphere.

"Wow, yay!" everyone cheered. "Thank's so much, Robin!"

"Yes, I can see it now," Kilo's eyes flared up crazily. "Debris and burning embers flying everywhere. CT won't see it coming, the bastard."

"Stop," Robin reproached Kilo, almost disgusted. She sighed and decided to make tea while the others idled in the living room. As Robin put the kettle on the stove, she asked, "So, Kilo, what happened to your leg if you don't mind me asking?"

Kilo looked down at his prosthetic foreleg. He lay down and disengaged it nonchalantly, inspecting it. Shrugging, he replied, "I, y'know, lost it."

"That's it?"

"Yeah," Kilo frowned. Was his answer not good enough? "I was dismembered in a scuffle with some bigheaded, gray alien species. Not native to our own planet, mind you."

"So you guys basically protect your home planet, is that right?"

"Yes, we're supposed to," Plates said. Community service basically entailed guarding the planet outside of its atmosphere. It was a risky job, and that's why so many pokémon died on the job so often.

Robin came back into the room. "Interesting. Also, why do you guys speak our language?" That was a good question. Since animal-to-human translators, let alone _alien_-to-human translators did not exist, their shared language could only be explained by one thing.

"Obviously," Plates began, "we both come from the same place." Could that be true? Robin had never heard of their kind before. She'd only heard of extinct species from long ago, like the dinosaurs, mammoths, etc. She had noted previously that the gods did somewhat resemble ancient figures from the past. Maybe they originated from Earth. "Do you have any more questions?"

"Yeah, Plates. What's with that cat you're always holding on to? Does it talk too?"

Plates blinked a couple times. "Eh? Oh!" He lit up, looking down at the anorith in his arms. "Yes, this is my beloved child!"

Robin gave him a look. "You birthed that?"

Plates blushed. "My partner did, not me."

Now, Robin was really intrigued, and a little confounded as well. "What was your partner? A cat?"

Kilo and Aub turned to each other with raised brows. Aub pantomimed the "this girl is crazy" gesture.

"No." Plates's eyes narrowed. "An armaldo. Same...species."

"That looks nothing like you though..."

"It hasn't developed yet."

"But, I mean, it really looks absolutely nothing like you." Though it was a weird thing to argue about, the room fell under an eerie silence, and no one exactly knew why. "To me, it looks very feline. Like a cat."

Everyone simultaneously took a long, hard look at the anorith, whose red and white feathers ruffled in annoyance.

...

"What's a cat?" Kilo asked.

Robin threw her head back and groaned. "Whatever, tomāto tomäto." The kettle began to whistle, and that was Robin's cue to leave.

"What the hell was that about?" Plates asked Kilo, who tried to shrug but couldn't, as he only had one forearm at the time. It was nice to get to know Robin, but really the humans just seemed to be on an entirely separate wavelength. Besides being a total nutcase, they thought the girl was pretty okay, even Kilo, who had firmly believed she was untrustworthy at first. The speech she made the night before was kind of weird, too. Her selflessness made her seem too nice, a foreign concept to the crew who had otherwise been surrounded by deception and betrayal throughout their lives.

Later, she would go back into town and call up that guy again to finalize their deal. After that, the gods would have to be interrogated. Human interaction was a really nerve-wracking idea to them. What if it was all a lie? What if they would be killed on the spot?

That night, they all went up on the roof again to see if they could get in touch with CT. The reception seemed to be fine, yet no one wanted to respond, which really ticked Kilo off. He had said, into the transmitter, "We're meeting with the humans tomorrow. I will report back to you tomorrow night if all goes well." Of course, he didn't mention anything about the department of defense, in case Captain Sam decided to give them a ride after all.

After, everyone went inside one by one again, Aub being the last one in. After he had skywatched for a bit, he decided it was time to get some rest. Their meeting with the humans was set for tomorrow. There was nothing else he could do, besides let his immense guilt gnaw at him, so he might as well go to bed. He shut the window behind him and waved to Robin, who was reading a book in her bed. He wished her goodnight and shut her door.

When he walked down the hall and turned the corner, he saw a small, flattish figure at the top of the stairway. His heart skipped a beat. "A-anorith?"

Anorith said and did nothing, like usual.

Aub gave it a wary side-eye. "Or are you...someone else?"

No response.

Aub bent down. "Where's Daddy? How'd you get up here?" He tilted his head in wonder. Suddenly, Anorith moved an inch forward, causing the lucario to jump back. "Maxence, i-is that you?" He wasn't sure why he accused the anorith of such a thing, but he noticed being in its presence had felt different since they'd landed on I16. Aub decided to just go with it and admit to the anorith what he'd done, in hopes that doing so would make him feel better. "I'm sorry, Maxence. I feel really bad for tricking you like that, but I was just...really scared." He rubbed his elbow dolefully. "I was really scared that if I didn't trick you, I _myself _would have died, and I don't want to die," he whined. "Hehe," he sniffled, "don't tell Plates I got all emotional..."

He thought it silly for himself to be talking to what may as well have been an unresponsive stuffed animal, although it was oddly therapeutic. Feeling a little better about himself, Aub knelt down. "Let's get you back to your daddy, okay?" He made to grab the anorith but was stopped when he felt something seize his shoulders. He was thrown into the wall behind him, the back of his head denting the drywall. A pair of imperceptible limbs had grabbed ahold of him, adjusting their grip up to his neck where they began strangulating the lucario mercilessly. Consequentially, the tears he had held back before were being squeezed out of his eyes at that point. "Nnn-nno-noo," he managed to choke out. His red eyes wide with fear, he tried to mentally grasp at any sort of explanation behind this.

His neck was relinquished momentarily. He used that time to climb to his feet, shielding his neck with his paws. Then his was being pushed back again. As that was happening, he heard audible laughter.

"Show yourself," croaked Aub.

Maxence obeyed and appeared before him in lieu of the anorith, her ribbon-like appendages wrapped around Aub's wrists. "It's time for you to die," she sang.

Aub was unable to react really, having the life drained out of him and all, but his reaction would probably have been one of horror, or confusion. He shifted to his left, softly hitting his hip against a bedside table that had been relocated to the hallway. The lamp that was on it nearly toppled over.

The sylveon laughed derisively. "Are you surprised to see me?" (Obviously, she knew the answer was yes.) "Even after that stupid human girl practically compromised me? Hah! And you thought _I _was the dumb one."

Aub grabbed the lamp with one paw and threw—no, tossed it a few feet in Maxence's direction. It shattered instantly. Maxence tightened her grip, her feigned smile disappearing, and began pressing the lucario against the wall until he felt as though his spine would break.

"Your plan to befriend the humans won't work, because after I tear you in half I'm going to go out there and kill every goddamn human I find, marring your 'pacifistic' reputation for all the planet to see." The sylveon, who had supposedly been pronounced dead, had been with the crew the entire time, hypnotizing the crew into seeing her as Plates's child. She had actually tried sabotaging the crew every chance she got, like back on the train when it was being searched, but she figured the best way to go about her vengeance was the more direct one.

"I heard a crash," Robin said, unsurprised, peering out from her bedroom. She saw in the dark what looked like Aub and the cat engaging in a...romantic embrace? She blanched and apologized, but then Kilo bounded up the stairs, clamping his mouth down on one of the sylveon's ribbons.

Maxence snarled and flung her ribbon behind her, sending Kilo down the stairs. How had she gotten so strong? With her free ribbon she slammed Aub against the wall one more time, causing the wall to cave in to the point where it was just barely standing. She threw Aub to the side, into the table for good measure. It shattered beneath him, sending splinters across the floor. He lay still.

"Maxence! H-how!?" The manectric had made it up the stairs once again, looking on in pure bewilderment.

The sylveon turned to him and smiled. "There's nothing a little Ally Switch and hypnotization can't do." Still smiling determinedly, she summoned enough energy to bust open the wall at the end of the hallway and leap through.

Glass shards pattered against the floor. Drywall crumbled from the roof and tapped along the floor as well. When Robin decided to turn on the light, the mini hall chandelier was swinging to and fro, flickering dramatically...After a silent moment, Kilo turned around and noticed Plates had been standing behind him, his mouth hanging open ever so slightly.

* * *

a/n: The end! Haha just kidding LOL.

In all seriousness, this was an important chapter, and I hope it touched you sweetly.


End file.
